April 8, 2013

April 8, 2013

Note:  for those who want to send Elder Erb a letter for his Birthday (April 12th), his current mailing address is:

Elder Charles Jace Erb

63 Charter Oaks St. #A

Manchester Connecticut 06040

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Hello family and friends,

     What an amazing Conference!  People have been telling me how much different Conference is on your mission but I did not understand how much different till I experienced it for myself over the past two days.  Not only has this conference affected me in my own spiritual growth and development, but has also helped those that we teach.

     An example of this is with a less active member we have been visiting recently named Sister L....  We have been going on walks with Sister L... in the morning to help here keep her mind off of smoking.  During these walks we talk about principles of Christ's Gospel.  When talking with her she told us that it had been hard on her recently because she has been having troubles in her family with her children.  Unfortunately for us we could not help her to know what she should do because we know little on the subject and had no member with us.  We told her to watch General Conference.  After the first two sessions of Conference, we received a call from Sister L....  She said that those two sessions of conference were exactly what she needed to hear and were an answer to her prayers.  She explained to us that through many of the talks concerning families she felt comforted and confirmation from the Spirit of the Lord.

     During this week leading up to conference we had several other miracles happen.  One of which was the Baptism of V... M... from my first area right before the first session of Conference.  Another has to do with a woman named E....  E... was a name given to us from that list that I spoke about last week of people we were assigned to get info on.  We had stopped by this house several times before.  Each time not finding E..., but instead one of her family members telling us she was not home.  Finally after about the fourth or fifth visit they took compassion on us and told us to call her and gave us E...'s number.  When we went to see her she was thrilled to meet us and wanted to know about the gospel.  She explained that her family had become inactive a long time ago and she was not quite sure why.  She asked if she could come to church with us and we told her that we had Conference.  I then could somehow tell that she was confused and explained what Conference was.  After we had explained it is where our Prophet and Apostles speak to the public and members of the church she said OK and we began to move on.  It was then that I somehow got the feeling that she did not know what a Prophet was.  I now look back and I do not know how I felt this, for she did not show any signs of confusion in what we said.  I asked E... if she knew and she said no.  Because of this she became excited that there was someone like a modern day Moses.  She agreed to watch the last session of General Conference gladly and full of excitement.  It was not till later that we found out that she is not a member.

     I have learned how the Lord can prepare people no matter the situation that they may be in.  As long as we are ready and prepared ourselves, the Lord will put these people in our paths so that we may help them find Him.  I hope that in the same way Conference has answered my prayers that it has answered yours.

Elder Erb